Content vs. Contentment
Mainstream consumer culture, digital detoxes, and needing less.
It’s been four weeks since my last post. While I did plan on slowing down this summer and publishing less frequently, it was not my intention to stay away this long.
I used family vacation as an excuse to do a digital detox; a much needed break from the dozens of Substacks, industry publications, TikTok and IG influencers, brand newsletters, and various news channels that I consume daily in the name of “staying informed.” This is required reading for me to start my day. It’s coffee and cultural content for breakfast every morning, 6 days a week.
For three weeks, I gave myself permission to skip the content and just have coffee. No screens. No social. Just a view of Lake Champlain from my cabin deck. During the day, I used my phone to capture moments, send some texts, and confer with Google Maps to make sure we weren’t lost.
What surprised me most was how easy this was for me. I didn’t have an ounce of FOMO. I didn’t miss the hot takes on cultural moments or micro trends from my favorite Gen Z Substackers. I didn’t think once about beauty hauls or wonder which celebrity launched a brand that week. I was at peace, needing very little from my external world to satisfy me. And this realization blew me away.
Was I just burnt out? Did I just need a reset? Or is there a deeper learning here?
Upon re-entry, many of the first Substacks and business articles I read seemed to be questioning the same thing. Within the span of a week, I read about The Great Exhaustion, Underconsumption Core, consuming too much, max distraction, someone else’s digital detox, content-provoked fandom, and then this beautifully written essay, Are You Satisfied Yet? In it, the author tackles many of the themes I have written about, including greed, fast fashion, and the advertising/affiliate loop that keeps us in its grasp. She courageously suggests that the most effective solution to the problem is, “we could stop buying so much. Have enough!”
And then this:
We steer clear of enoughness. Maybe because it’s boring as hell? Nobody wants to watch the Hollywood blockbuster about “The Man Who Found Inner Peace and Stopped Shopping.” It's not easily commodified. The message doesn’t need a team of copywriters to craft it. It’s simple: Stop buying. You have enough.
(Read the whole thing on Total Rec. You won’t be disappointed.)
In The World, But Not Of It
The realization that I need less to be happy is counter to the world we live in and the industry I work in, and it’s been a mind-melter. My job is to create culturally relevant brands and develop strategies that lead them to commercial success.
Yet, mainstream consumer culture has become a predatory playground where ad-driven content appeals to our most insatiable tendencies. Algorithms keep us addicted and sophisticated tracking systems keep us in their grasp. Hired guns create hype. Sponcon and deep fakes deceive us. And a culture of manufactured desire enslaves us. We are no longer just consuming content; content is now consuming us.
So, how do we live in the world, but not of it? Mainstream consumer culture isn’t going anywhere. And it’s not my strategic advice for brands to avoid it altogether. To do so would certainly limit visibility, influence and impact. Brands must actively engage, but instead of following the current playbook, we must reimagine marketing and channel strategies and reclaim creativity, authenticity, connection, and choice.
This is a big topic, and it’s taking me more time than expected to wrap my head around it. The weight of pressure I feel to write something useful and intentional is heavier than the weight I feel to publish on time. So, this is the reason for my 4 week gap. (If you’re a monthly subscriber, I’ve paused your subscription for August. I hope you stick around.)
While I’m diving deeper into what the future of ethical, intentional, soulful brand building looks like, I’d love to hear from you.
Do you feel overwhelmed, manipulated or duped by content?
How many of your recent purchases have been impulse buys based on great advertising or influencer recommendations? Did they live up to the hype?
What type of content most consumes you?
Do you ever feel you have enough?
This is great, Rachel, and resonates on many levels. I'm commenting on this several weeks late because I also took a major break over the summer! Re: your question "Do you feel overwhelmed, manipulated or duped by content?" Yes. And, what's more, when I turned 40, my algorithm decided that I must be deeply unsatisfied with my body/face/clothes/life and I started to get some very strange ads in my feed. Lots of fear-mongering. And names for facial wrinkles that I'd never heard of. It made me even more determined to reject these modes of thinking. I respond to content that is positive and affirming. So, yes, this all resonates! Glad you were able to take some time to rest.
Rachel - this resonates for so many right now. The overwhelm of information is very real for so many of my clients and it often results in feelings of inadequacy, guilt and shame. The pace at which so many people are trying to live and work and consume is simply not sustainable. And if we think it's bad among adults, try being a teen in this digital AI world. Mark my words: REST and STILLNESS and CONNECTION is what the world needs more of. Brands that can create that for consumers will win in the coming years in my humble opinion.